Beach Debris Still a Mystery; 77 Syringes Wash Up on S.I.

By JANE GROSS

Published: July 12, 1988

Six days after medical debris began turning up on New York area beaches, city and state officials were still unable yesterday to say where the material came from, what infections, if any, it might cause and how great a risk to public health it posed.

As thousands of uncertain New Yorkers stayed away from the shore in the midst of a heat wave, city officials said yesterday that more than 70 syringes and vials of blood had washed up on a Staten Island beach since Saturday. This time, they said, it seemed almost certain that it was medical trash dumped in the water and not the detritus of drug abusers. Contrast Striking

The contrast between yesterday's discovery and the suspicious waste that closed Long Island's beaches was striking: while about 36 syringes were found along 35 miles of Long Island and Queens shorefront last week, 77 hypodermics, some larger than those normally used by diabetics or drug abusers, washed up on a single mile-long stretch of Midland Beach over the weekend.

Also found were two capped test tubes filled with liquid blood and an assortment of prescription medical bottles, some with markings that might help investigators track the source.

That incident on Staten Island notwithstanding, all the other beaches in the city, Long Island and New Jersey were ruled clean and safe by local authorities and remained open yesterday.

Meanwhile, tests began yesterday in the city and Albany on the vials and syringes that had been picked up last week. Health officials said that, although hepatitis and AIDS viruses - the two biggest concerns - can survive for several days in needles and syringes left on beaches, the chances that a beachgoer would contract these diseases are very low. [ Page B4. ] Midland Beach, a stretch of the eastern shore of Staten Island from Seaview to Greeley Avenues, remained closed yesterday for the second day as officials from the city's health, sanitation and parks departments met to discuss the confusing events of recent days. Meanwhile, on Long Island, the two remaining closed beaches reopened - Smith Point on Fire Island and Overlook Beach in the town of Brookhaven. Drug Paraphernalia

Since last Wednesday, an assortment of medical and drug paraphernalia has turned up on local beaches, with varying official evaluations about whether it is hazardous, whether it was dumped in the ocean or left behind by beach-goers and whether it is medical or related to the rampant drug abuse that has created a new form of litter on local streets and stoops.

The confusion has been exacerbated by the array of authorities involved in examining and identifying the waste and deciding whether to close the beaches. Typical of the jurisdictional confusion was the fact that both the state and city health departments were testing vials and syringes to determine, among other things, if they contained either the AIDS or the hepatitis B virus. New Expressions of Alarm

While the beach situation quieted down on Long Island yesterday, new expressions of alarm were sounded by New York City officials, who were assembled by Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, the city's health commissioner. Dr. Joseph said said that he and his fellow commissioners had decided that the situation at Midland Beach was entirely different from the one at Rockaway Beach, which was closed briefly last Friday after 10 small syringes were found and identified as the sort that might have been left behind by heroin addicts shooting up on the beach.

''We have learned a lot in the last three days about the ecology of beaches,'' Dr. Joseph said.

At Rockaway, Dr. Joseph said, only a few syringes had been found, all of them about 3 inches long, as thick as a little finger and with 25- or 26-gauge needles, the sort used to administer insulin - the type favored by intravenous drug abusers. Apart from that, the waste consisted of crack vials, Finally, once the beach was cleaned, no more were deposited by the next tide.

At Midland, Dr. Joseph said, far more syringes were found - 77 by yesterday afternoon, according to the Department of Parks and Recreation. In addition to the insulin-type syringes, larger ones were also found, about 4 inches long and thick as a thumb. That kind is commonly used to draw blood or give medication. The syringes washed onto the beach over the course of several high tides. Unused Syringes, Blood Vials

Even more telling, Dr. Joseph said, were two insulin-type syringes that had never been used and thus were not likely to have been abandoned by a drug addict, and two capped test tubes of the sort used uniquely for blood collecting, each with blood inside.

''This material clearly came from a medical facility of some kind,'' Dr. Joseph said. According to Brendan Sexton, the Sanitation Commissioner, the most likely culprit is a garbage carting concern that mishandled its load.

A private carter, which charges more to properly handle infectious hospital waste than it does for the common trash taken from restaurants and other businesses, might save itself money and trouble by simply backing a truck down a pier and dumping hospital trash in the harbor, another city official said. Two Pill Bottles Found

Mr. Sexton said the quantity of debris indicated that it had not been dumped by a barge. A hospital, he said, ''would not be stupid enough to open the back door and throw the stuff in the water.''

The most traceable evidence Mr. Sexton's investigators found was two pill bottles, although there is no way to be sure they were ever connected to the vials and syringes. One, for an antibiotic, has a legible label that includes the name of a doctor, a patient, a prescription number and a pharmacy in upstate New York.

The city will wait for two clean tides before reopening Midland Beach, according to Henry J. Stern, the Parks Commissioner. At present, no one is allowed in the water, which is too dirty to encourage swimming under the best set of circumstances.

Dr. Joseph stressed yesterday that beach-goers should walk with care on all beaches these days.''In the old days, you had to look out for broken bottles,'' he said. ''Now it's needles and syringes. People need to use caution.''

photo of bathers at Smith Point Beach on Fire Island (pg. A1); map of Long Island highlighting beaches closed by waste (pg. B4)